Glen Atwell
Shaun InguanzoPretty Soldier Sailor Moon: Another Story (Review)
December 2nd 2006 23:30
Players: 1
Genre: RPG
Developer: Angel
Platform: SNES
Year: 1995 (Japan), No English Release - ROM only
I picked up this game for the sole reason that it was tagged "Fully Translated" after seeing it as Japanese-only for so long and figured 4MB was worth checking out. I didn't expect much from the game since it was based off an anime series (where games off anime are generally bad - unless it's a fighting game, and vice versa).
I'd also played a platformer Sailor Moon game on the Gameboy and found it quite disappointing. However, I found myself pleasantly surprised with this RPG.
Story: The villain is a woman named Apsu, and her goal is the Silver Crystal. That probably sounds familiar to anyone who's seen anything of Sailor Moon over the years. During the course of the game, you can play as Sailor Moon, Sailor Chibi Moon, and all the scouts: both inner and outer. So yeah... The story isn't all that special, but it's not atrocious either.
Battle System: This was the major surprise element of the game. Considering the origins as well as how the game would be directed towards female gamers, I wasn't expecting much of a battle system either. Well, nothing over the really simple that is.
Your battle party consists of up to five scouts. At the start of ever battle your scouts start with 12 jewels/gems which signify what's usually referred to as MP. These can be restored during battle with items, and you cannot attack if you've run out of them. You'll see all the scouts' traditional attacks as well as some new ones.
Innovation: Although Another Story has a similar combo system to Chrono Trigger, it takes it a bit further. When fighting with certain scouts together in battle for a while, they can learn combos with one or more of their team members up to a 5-person special. Not only are combos affected by who's in the party, they're also affected by the battle formation. Some of the formations are in a staggered line, an arrow, a cross, and so forth.
Formations themselves are Another Story's most interesting element. While most RPGs have the standard Front or Back position for each character (front increasing attack but lowering defense, and back doing the opposite), there's little difference in damage and little effect on the other party members.
In Another Story, battle formations can be crucial to battle survival. The line formation is the standard, with each scout along the line being slightly further back than the former. This brings a slight change in damage dealt/received. The arrow-like formation is my personal favourite, where the 3rd scout (counting top down) is the one that's very close to the enemies and the remaining four scouts are spread far apart further back. The arrow formation allows the 3rd scout to deal massive damage (eg, 2000HP), while the 2nd and 4th deal average (eg, 800HP) and the 1st and 5th are furthest back and dealing pitiful damage (eg, 50HP).
At this point it looks like a very significant damage difference based on how far away a character is from the enemy, and it is. Near the beginning of the game, you need to fight alone with various scouts and I had Mercury at the 5th position in the arrow-formation when I started the chapter with her. The battles were very drawn out, and I barely did any damage (20HP or so) before running out of skill gems. I thought she was incredibly weak, until I tried moving her to the 3rd position in the same formation. She then dealt around 2200HP worth of damage.
Graphics: Decent. Nothing to complain about for the technology level.
Sound: Music was passing. It was nice hearing some familiar music as well as some new pieces. Something else I noticed about the sound in this game is that for certain attacks, you get to hear a clip of the scouts yelling out the battle/skill cry (as per anime standards). It was the first time I came across voice in a SNES game, regardless of the quality.
Replayability: Low. It's a reasonably long game, and although it's fun, there isn't that much to go back for.
Overall: I found this to be a pretty good game, regardless of its link to a girlish anime. The gameplay was sound and the execution was well thought out. If you're not turned off by it being a Sailor Moon game (and even if you are, like I was), give it a go. It's well worth it.
Score: 8/10
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